After the widely publicized United Airlines incident, Southwest Airlines has announced plans to end the practice of routinely overbooking flights to avoid similar situations.
Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said the airline had been considering moving away from overbooking for some time, but the United episode accelerated the decision and brought greater attention to the issue.
“As we have dramatically improved our forecasting tools and techniques, and as we approach the upcoming implementation of our new reservations system on May 9, we no longer have a need to overbook as part of the revenue management inventory process,” a Southwest spokesperson said.
Beth Harbin, a Southwest spokeswoman, explained that the combination of enhanced forecasting and a modernized reservation platform rolling out this month will remove the operational need to overbook. Once the change is implemented, Southwest will join JetBlue as one of the only major U.S. carriers that bans routine overbooking. United Airlines has said it will work to reduce overbooking but does not plan to eliminate it entirely.
Southwest did not provide a specific timetable for when the new policy will take full effect. Company officials noted the change is expected to have only a minor impact on revenue, and they plan to offset any loss by eliminating the need to compensate passengers who are involuntarily denied boarding on overbooked flights.
The airline acknowledged that it may still occasionally need to reassign passengers when operational changes occur, such as substituting a smaller aircraft for the plane originally scheduled.